Press

Rift between Prince Harry’s wife and her father may not have significant impact on perception of Royals

“I have been watching with a certain amount of interest and it does seem like a bad episode … of Coronation Street, a soap opera,” said British public relations expert Mark Borkowski, who has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Where’s the family allegiance?

PR expert Borkowski would have “got well ahead of this and dealt with it right at … the outset” during the wedding preparations and brought Markle into the royal camp.

“Clearly they’re in a very difficult situation,” Borkowski said. “They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. He’s proving to be a man who is being paid regularly by some of these … [media] agencies in America. They’re feeding him and he is performing like some sort of dancing pony by keeping this narrative going.”

“I think it’s crept up on them,” said Borkowski. “Everybody makes mistakes and I think it was a mistake that was made, and it’s a very difficult one to recover from. Maybe they tried.”

From Borkowski’s perspective, the palace needs to keep Meghan’s father at “arm’s length because anything they’re likely to try and do he’s going to use for his own income.”

Borkowski expects there have been numerous attempts through intermediaries to sort this out, “but really it’s between a daughter and her father.”

And in that, maybe it’s not so far removed from what families outside the palace walls face — and this could engender some empathy for Meghan.

“I think most families across the world will have a narrative about an estranged relative,” said Borkowski. “I think there’s a more realistic feeling now towards the Royal Family, so you know these things happen to them, they’re out in the open.”

For all the tabloid attention the Markle debacle has foisted on the Royal Family, there isn’t a sense it is having a significant negative impact on the public perception of Meghan and Harry and the House of Windsor right now.

“It seems like a bad narrative going on, but I think people want to see Harry and Meghan succeed in terms of a relationship,” Borkowski said.

The stars were on board, the contracts had been signed, and the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie was scheduled to begin shooting in early 2019.

But Disney’s recent firing of director James Gunn has left the franchise somewhat up in the air.

PR expert Mark Borkowski says there can often be ways for stars to return to their careers after a scandal – provided the situation is handled well.

“You disappear for a while, you look for help, you’re contrite, and as long as the conduct doesn’t return, you have an opportunity to re-gather your brand and look again,” he explains. “But I think what we’re beginning to see are these peaks and outrages don’t sustain. Because the audience move on very quickly to the next thing.

“If that person truly reflects odious views, there is no hope for them. But some people make mistakes in their youth when they’re not really on top of what they’re doing. They don’t have the advice, they’re not famous, and these things come back to haunt them.”

He adds: “I do think there is generally a massive overreaction, and bad publicity doesn’t seem to sustain… everybody has a way back.”

Their love may last forever but Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham’s eight weeks in the Love Island bubble came to an abrupt end yesterday as they flew back to the UK on a delayed Ryanair flight.

Publicist Mark Borkowski said companies might pay them up to £100,000 per social media post to endorse products. ‘Make no mistake, Dani and Jack will be able to monetise their fame — and many of the others will,’ he said.

He added the islanders need to stay in the limelight to rake it in long term. ‘This is the beginning of their journey,’ he said. ‘Can they maintain that fame?’

“Make no mistake, Dani and Jack will be able to monetise their fame. And many of the others will, ” publicist and strategist Mark Borkowski told the Press Association.

“But many of these reports saying it is better than an Oxbridge education (in terms of earnings) are overstated. There is a huge peak and a massive dip.”

The reach of a contestant’s profile on social media, particularly on Instagram, will be key to their success.

Whether it is endorsing a “holiday destination, a fitness product, a line of lingerie, you can market that extremely well if you’ve got a structure around you,” Mr Borkowski said.

“It’s about more than having a deal with a photo agency and snapping shots in Thailand. You’ve got to get brands behind you. It takes time.”
He said payments for plugs on social media could range from £20,000 to £100,000.

But he added: “You have to get multiple, multiple, multiple millions of followers who are engaged with you… Beyonce, Kendall Jenner, they have machines behind them.”
Some of the contestants will soon “be forgotten about” and so to stay in the public eye they will need “a TV format because we’ve got a very short span of attention,” he said.

But Mr Borkowski said that many celebrities had discovered that “new boyfriends” lead to “new headlines”.

So “if they’re going to be maintaining that relationship in the public eye, if there’s a genuine relationship, they will struggle”, he said of Jack and Dani.

“Just because the public love you and they’ve seen you fall in love,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that they can follow in the footsteps of names like Scarlett Moffatt and Rylan Clark-Neal with careers in TV presenting, Mr Borkowski said.

“You can’t do anything in the public eye unless you are good at it.”.

He added: “The reality of coming out of the bubble will be a big crash landing… We forget the causalities of this fame… It’s a very, very tough and cruel world and I’ve seen so much. I wish them well.”

It was to be the stunt of the summer. Two unlikely partners. One representing dignity and justice. The other a flagrant troublemaker. Yet – against the odds – they come together. Some call it irresponsible. Others claim the pursuit of a better world.

Yet sadly for Paddy Power, its partnership with the NGO Greenpeace was soon eclipsed by the dual grins of new besties Donald and Kim claiming this summer’s most outrageous pairing. Where the betting brand had hoped to provoke outrage with the image of polar bears branded with the St George’s flag, only to reveal it to be a hoax to raise awareness of oil drilling in the Russian Arctic, few seemed to take the stunt seriously.

Yet sadly for Paddy Power, its partnership with the NGO Greenpeace was soon eclipsed by the dual grins of new besties Donald and Kim claiming this summer’s most outrageous pairing. Where the betting brand had hoped to provoke outrage with the image of polar bears branded with the St George’s flag, only to reveal it to be a hoax to raise awareness of oil drilling in the Russian Arctic, few seemed to take the stunt seriously.

There is a sense of déjà vu with many of Paddy’s stunts. During the Rio World Cup it did a similar act of faux-vandalism by claiming to have shaved a crude message about Brazilian grooming into the Amazon rainforest.

The trouble with this mischief is that it lacks the strength of its convictions. No sooner have they ‘leaked’ the image than it is revealed to be a self-aggrandising hoax. The masters of the genre like PR provocateur Harry Reichenbach would simply not recognise this as a hoax. As the man who gave birth to the myth of a real-life monkey man ‘Mr Zann’, among other cunning tricks, Reichenbach understood the only way to capture the public imagination – and guarantee coverage – is to tap into an inherent plausibility while persevering to not give the game away.

Paddy’s stunt barely registered beyond its own social channels and the trades – yet another example of PRs talking about themselves to themselves. It also may be the case that in a world of fake news Paddy’s hoaxes are struggling to keep up with the constantly shifting line between fact and fiction, where everything is simultaneously possible but disbelieved. This trends towards relative veracity tends towards ugliness, as the Beckhams, the latest victims of Twitter-charged fallacy, will attest.

The corrosive influence of fake news reached its height in that historic meeting in Singapore, which saw statesmanship replaced by Love Island showmanship and diplomacy lamin-ated in ego. Rather than taking a leaf out of stagecraft, this unprecedented meeting of the leaders of North Korea and the US seemed to have more in common with silly season PR campaigns. You’ve run out of ideas of how to promote your product: what about the partnership that no one asked for? Paddy and Greenpeace has been mentioned. You may also cast you minds back to the McWhopper campaign, which saw Burger King invite McDonald’s to join forces in aid of World Peace Day. Neither is intended to be a meaningful partnership, and they ultimately tumble under the weight of their own cynicism.

As is so often the case in PR, we risk getting lost in our own irrelevance. Outside of the media bubble these pairings barely register, let alone capture the imagination. Agencies may bray at analytics showing incredible engagement with their branded content. Yet real influence remains elusive. To achieve this we have to focus on where the real stories are.

Coleen Rooney has finally confirmed that she and her children will move to Washington to support Wayne after he signed for DC United.

HE’S England’s all time top goalscorer, a devoted father of four who recently celebrated his 10-year wedding anniversary to his childhood sweetheart.
But for much of his career it seemed Wayne Rooney made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Now, however, after completing a £300,000-a-week move to US soccer team DC United, it seems he’s finally settling down for a life away from the scandals that have punctuated his time in English football.

Yesterday wife Coleen confirmed in a tweet she and children Kai, eight, Klay, five, Kit, two, and four month-old Cass will be joining him.
“The move is very much a family-led thing,” says PR expert Mark Borkowski.

“Without doubt Coleen’s first motivation in deciding to join Wayne is to keep the family together, keep the kids with their dad.
So she’ll go over there, have a look at how things are and then maybe they’ll think about whether her parents want to come out too. I’m sure she’ll feel it’s a case of the more the merrier.”

“You have to remember that nobody’s really heard of them in America,” says Mark Borkowski. “They’re not like the Beckhams.
“But what might be interesting is what happens if Wayne starts banging in the goals for DC United.

The Rooneys make a compelling story: the ordinary kids made good, the strong family unit, and she’s very presentable and likeable… there’s a sense of the American dream there.
“I believe she has joined Wayne principally for family reasons but it might turn out to be a very canny move in a marketing sense too.”

Mark Borkowski, a PR and branding expert, said the team’s humble and understated approach would draw many big brands back to football. “Before the World Cup some brands had gone off football because of some of the more colourful behaviour of players and the scandal at Fifa,” he said. “But Southgate’s phlegmatic and humble approach could mean that this could be the start of a new generation of players that brands want to go all in on.”

Even in defeat, there was an undeniable feel-good factor around England at the World Cup.

You only need to look at Marks & Spencer reporting a doubling in sales of waistcoats to see the value that a Southgate-led run at the World Cup can have on a brand. For public relations expert Mark Borkowski, the aura that Southgate created has made him an “absolute winner” of the tournament in Russia, which finished on Sunday.

“With the exception of Harry Kane they don’t have a stand-out player,” says Sher. “That has been the case throughout the tournament and that is set to continue. There wasn’t anyone in the team that emerged in particular.”

Borkowski disagrees: “The England team are coming back as heroes, a number of them, [Kieran] Trippier and certainly Kane’s value will have shot up. Jordan Pickford has surprised people and certainly Harry Maguire. It has surprised everybody.”

Now that the dust has settled on a tournament packed full of surprises, there is one thing that Borkowski is confident in predicting: deals.

“The Brits like heroic failures, it’s part of our psyche,” he says. “England can harvest the success of heroic failure for all sorts of deals. I suspect after the summer break we will see a lot more deals.”

The Three Lions hero and current World Cup leading scorer has advertising deals with the likes of Nike, Beats By Dre, Lucozade Sport, BT Sport, EA Sports and Hugo Boss, but could earn huge windfall if England win in Russia

HARRY Kane may be a marketing man’s dream, but he’ll never be more marketable than David Beckham, according to a top PR guru.

The Three Lions striker is one of the world’s most feared strikers and has scored sponsorship deals with a host of top brands, including Nike, Beats By Dre, Lucozade Sport, EA Sports, Hugo Boss and BT Sport.

And should Harry and his England teammates lift the World Cup in Russia he could be set for a £100m windfall, if his PR team handle his publicity the right way.

But despite his clean-cut image off the pitch that makes him the perfect role model for advertisers, it’s unlikely he’ll ever be as big as Becks.

“It’s not just his (value), but everyone else’s in that team,” PR specialist Mark Borkowski told SunSport.

“If you look at Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles, Gordon Banks, Martin Peters and all those guys. They never made anything like what a Championship player makes.

“But history does tell us one thing, if England do win the World Cup, the epic hype and value of every one of those players triples and quadruples because it sustains over a period of time.

“It’s not what Kane does in a year, but what is likely to benefit him over the next 50-years or when England win another World Cup!

“The value is going to be pretty momentous. It’s hype we’ve never seen, we saw Andy Murray win Wimbledon and the buzz of London Olympics 2012 but this would be beyond that.

“For Harry, it could be worth multiple millions. I would say he could make £100m and if he’s got clever people around him he could be harvesting money for 50-years.

“But the problem Kane may have is the real money will be made through foreign sponsorship, so if he goes to someone like Real Madrid he could quadruple his earnings.

“Should he win the World Cup though, he’d have a career that would sustain things certainly in China and America, so it would be beyond a pension scheme.”

Big brands love sports stars who project a goody-two shoes image. Kane fits the mould perfectly as a family man.

“David Beckham aside there’s very few footballers who brands have trusted, because they’re not the greatest role models,” Borkowski said.

“I think Kane transcends that, I don’t even think he has a tattoo! It’s his behaviour that sponsors respond well to.”

But could he be a bigger commodity than Beckham?

“David Beckham transcended sport and also married a Spice Girl. He created a dynasty,” Borkowski argued.

“Beckham did well because he became an ambassador. He blotted his copybook over the knighthood, and Harry is more clean-cut, but I don’t think Harry has the same personality.

“He hasn’t got that same kind of glitzy image, in the sense that Beckham is global. Harry would have to find himself at Real Madrid or make it big in America to be bigger than Beckham.

“I also think he’s a bit too homily, he’s the boy next door. Beckham was the boy next door, but he went rock and roll. I don’t think Harry has that in him..

“He could be someone who could be a statesman for football, definitely though.

“Kane could do whatever he wants, but the price of fame that’s hung heavily on Beckham’s shoulders – I’m not sure Harry would want that and I don’t think he’ll need that.”

PR guru Mark Borkowski says: “When this man loses there’s no ­tantrums. He is incredibly warm to people when they beat him. He’s the sort of perfect package.”

He is the ultimate pro. He’s always delivered and at the height of his career he was winning everything in front of him.

“Brands want winners. Sponsors want to be associated with ­winners.”

Unlike some top athletes, Federer has yet to fall from his perch. Fellow IMG ­client Tiger Woods was the golf’s most valuable star until his scandalous extramarital antics and substance abuse landed him at the bottom of the pile in 2009. In a year, he lost £16million of endorsements.

Thanks to Lauren McMenemy below is my contribution to her article for Skyword
“Content from All Angles: Are SEO Content, PR Content, and Content Marketing All That Different?”

I don’t care about your ego or what your textbooks told you: Content and story are the nucleus of all communications. It’s true whether you’re looking at it as a brand manager, an SEO specialist, a PR manager, a content writer, or any number of other roles found in the modern marketing organization. Before you create a website, contact a journalist, or engage a prospect, you need to know what story you’re telling, to whom, and why.

Does that mean all content is the same? Not exactly. There are some nuances in how we approach content depending on both its objectives and its eventual home. And even though objectives and distribution methods still differ across marketing functions, we’re now seeing a merging of disciplines, finding ways to use the same content to suit multiple purposes.

ON the face of it the show that throws together hunks in trunks and babes in bikinis is just yet another disposable reality series but in fact it offers a compelling insight into infatuation and romance. Pack a bevy of beautiful young things off to a sun- soaked Mediterranean villa, light the fuse and retreat.

“In short Love Island has become essential viewing or you risk being left out of conversations. “t has become the programme that everyone is talking about even if they don’t actually watch it or admit to watching it, “I was at a barbecue at the weekend that was full of 50-somethings who know about the show through their kids. It was astonishing.”

The big question now is whether this season’s show, known affectionately as LI18, can live up to all the hype” says PR guru Mark Borkowski.

She ticks every last box on race, on modernity, on marrying outside the system,” says Mark Borkowski. “If anything, she’s too good,” he says, predicting trouble. “Meghan and Harry could be a power couple, any cause they choose to support is going to be turbo-charged, but that’s going to create jealousies between them and William and Kate.” The trouble with putting them front and centre is that youth and beauty fade, cracks may emerge and popularity fall, in which case Harry’s wedding could look in retrospect like a season finale. The one before the Queen died and this long-running royality show finally jumped the shark (or lost the plot) as they say in Hollywood, where Meghan grew up. That’s what royalists dread and republicans will love. “The Royal Family will look back on this period while the Queen is alive as a golden time, because it is all going to unravel when she’s gone. She’s the glue. When she’s not around, you’re going to get Game of Thrones.”

It’s been one of focusing on the minute detail,” says Mark Borkowski, who has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Mikhail Gorbachev. (Hence we even got the names of the horses pulling the carriage — Milford Haven, Sir Basil, Tyrone, and Storm — among several other details.)Meghan ‘understands the game’.

It’s all been helped, Borkowski says, because “you’ve got an actress of Hollywood standing who understands the game.”

The BBC said they could not have sat on the story as they would have been accused of protecting the star, but Sir Cliff’s former PR Mark Borkowski considers the coverage was a grave error of judgement.

“I don’t think we’ll see the same ever again where the BBC became like a city news station in an American capital,” he said.

“Very, very poor journalistic response to what was a plot, some people would say.”

“Why wouldn’t you make it commercially available? If they say they are supporting the women’s game but then not making it available for fans to buy then that doesn’t really sit right,” she said. “I understand that they maybe want to try it out but I am sure it would prove popular.”

Media commentator Mark Borkowski said that the launch was “a publicity stunt”. He added: “If it’s not commercially available, you put it out there to generate a huge amount of media interest, see what the interest is and then, perhaps, produce it further down the line. It’s a well-known, clever, marketing ploy.”

A spokesman for the FA denied the all-female set was a gimmick and said the organisation was in discussions with Hasbro about producing a commercially available all-female set. “There are ongoing discussions looking at opportunities going forward,” said a spokesman.

Strategic PR consultant Mark Borkowski agrees: “Could Morecambe go on without Wise? They are a double act. Would Dec have the same impact? What would that say to his pal who’s recovering (if Dec went on alone)? This is a very deep friendship that goes back to childhood.”

Mark says there’s a lot riding on Ant’s recovery.

“It’s incredibly difficult. They are proper A-list. It’s not dissimilar to the problems with Jeremy Clarkson but look what happened when he overstepped the mark – you lost the potency of the format (the Top Gear line-up featuring Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond),” he explains.

“Now it’s about putting some context into these issues, trying to focus on his ill health.”

But he cautions that there’s much more at stake in the modern age.

“There are some real issues – the commercial pressures of putting people back on the screen. If someone says they’re fit enough to go back on screen what are you going to do?”

Slapstick family favourite revived with just two episodes after bumpy ride.

However, the publicist Mark Borkowski said revivals could backfire and get the “wrong kind of publicity … if you lean too heavily on the nostalgia. It can set the bar too high for the new talent who feel they’ve got to become the next Brucie.”

He added: “It’s a double-edged sword. A lot of the big shows such as Blind Date were extensions of stars’ personalities such as Cilla Black.”
Borkowski said broadcasters were keen to find new programmes as their big hits such as Strictly Come Dancing – itself a reworking of the BBC’s ballroom dancing competition, Come Dancing – or The X Factor have been around for years.

“It’s a very small gene pool of talent these days, which makes it hard for producers,” he said. “It’s a different world, where reality shows are giving us Rylan Clark-Neal or kids with massive characters are going on YouTube thinking they can make money presenting for four minutes. It’s not the same as being able to carry a large shiny floor show.”

Mark Borkowski, the public relations expert, believes that a lack of talent waiting in the wings is a big problem for ITV.

“The talent pool of top notch presenters is so small and Ant and Dec are so good at their jobs but there is no one else who can take their place,” he says. “Who else could step into their shoes? It’s hard to imagine anyone. They are a cash cow for the advertisers and that is why they are worked hard and so they are knackered. They have worked so hard and it’s really tough. The vortex of fame is a thing people don’t understand and may struggle to sympathise with. But it’s real.